Monthly Archives: May 2012

Using left over strips from my Autumn Prairie Braid quilt, I assembled this table runner. The strip pieces start at 1.5″ by 4.5 inches. After making four short braids, I joined them to a 4.5 inch central square and two side triangles. The ends were squared off and a 3″ border was added.

The runner was quilted with a dense meander with a tan colored thread in the braid area and the border was quilted with a rust colored thread in a half-feather pattern. The binding was machine sewn to the front and hand stitched to the back. The finished dimension of the table runner is 36″ by 15″.

It looks great on my dining table, but I plan to give it to my cottage neighbor, Encela, who makes the world’s best cabbage rolls. We rave about her cooking and she always generously sends us home with an extra container of her cabbage rolls. At our house, there is always good-natured scrapping over who exactly is the designated recipient of the cabbage rolls. Despite the fact that she gives them to me to carry home, my husband is convinced they are all for him. My son and daughter both protest they are sure they were meant to have them. We all share the wonderful cabbage rolls, but there is always a bit of negotiating for the last one.

Encela loves brown and green, so I want to surprise her with this table runner.

Recently, a friend received some Clifford pillow panels in a bag from another quilter. That reminded me that I had some at home in my own stash. I pulled out the panels and some coordinating Clifford fabric that was also in my stash for the borders. I set the panels vertically and added some simple sashing in a yellow print.

The quilting is done with a small stipple in the border, loops in the sashing, wiggly lines in the plaid panel borders and outline stitching in the center panels. Even though I used three different colors of thread, It quilted up quite quickly. A coordinating red print binding, stitched to the back and top stitched to the front finished off the quilt.

This simple baby quilt will go into my baby quilt stash until I need a quick gift for a baby shower. This one might be good for a boy, I think. I’d love to give it with a copy of a Clifford book!

One of the great advantages of going to a quilt show is the infusion of creativity and motivation one feels being immersed in a sea of quilts.

In addition to the many quilts we examined during our appraisal classes, I enjoyed the gorgeous quilts in the Museum of the American Quilters Society. The top five quilts of the show are awarded a purchase award. The quilter may choose to sell the winning quilt to the Museum for a prize of $20,000. Needless to say, the collection of quilts in the museum is stunning. Photos are not allowed, so I have no visuals to share with you from the museum. My mind however, is full of wonderful ideas for my own future quilts.

The quilt display in the convention center showcased many outstanding quilts. I took quite a few photos – at least until my battery ran out. Here are photos of some of the quilts on display.